Bruce Arena and LD take criticism like....

[purojogo]

well, you be the judge.... These are 3 of the articles written up after Sunday:


Arena's defensive tactics were simply offensive
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/3497216

Arena's experiment went awry
Ives Galarcep
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=329163&cc=5901

U.S. loss leaves foul taste for players
Marc Connolly
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=328962&cc=5901



And this is how LD reacts....

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=329195&cc=5901
...
"We play I don't know if it was 15, 16 games without losing, we have really one bad half, one bad five minutes in Mexico against a very good team at an incredible altitude and in nasty smog," Landon Donovan said, and all of a sudden we're the worst team in CONCACAF. It just makes some peace and quiet for a week, so that people can leave us alone. But we needed that."

BTW, did anyone ever imply anything even remotely resembling 'we are the worst team in CONCACAF'? Plus are the American soccer press, fans, executives that demanding that the team felt they were not being 'left alone'? .... Call me crazy, but I think this team will be 'left alone' for a while by most media, until the next qualifiers, or at least until a challenging friendly comes along.... Even then, it should be a small fraction of the attention they got for the Mexico game, or the one in Alabama... You'd think Donovan has papparazis (sp?) after him.... Oh, well, as long as we won...

Then again, BA is not much better:
USA-GUA Post-Match Quote Sheet
3/31/05 0:19 AM
http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=163388&itype=113&iCategoryID=0
....
"On comparing Guatemala win to Mexico loss:
“You can never compare games. It’s a completely different game. I can say this until I’m blue in the face, but you can’t play like this in altitude as a visiting team. You just can’t do it. I know you people can’t appreciate that. You’re gonna come up with great theories on we didn’t play two strikers or this or that. That’s idiotic. It’s really about adapting to those conditions, and it’s difficult. You play one of the best teams in the world in difficult conditions. You cannot play the kind of game we were able to play tonight."

So the fact he had admitted himself that he was perhaps wrong putting in EJ all alone vs. Mexico in 'USA Today' means he is an idiot too, going by that logic?

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/wusa/2005-03-28-notes-arena-lineup_x.htm
...
"Take two
When asked what he would have done differently Sunday, Arena said, "In retrospect maybe playing a player next to Eddie Johnson in the first half may have been a better choice."

As the team's lone forward, Johnson was stranded at times with little attacking help from the flanks before Arena made adjustments, moving to a 3-4-3 later in the game to try to add more of an offensive attack."


I'll always be a fan, but some attitudes are just too much to take (IMO) It's not like the scrutiny that this team goes through ever goes (thankfully) near the level of abuse you can see in the treatment of just about 90+% of other NTs out there..... Yet, these two feel as if the wrath of the world had been placed upon them..... That really bothers me a lot..... can't take a bit of criticism..... come on.....

[FabFiveFigo]

Did LD start crying during that interview.

Dude is FRAGILE.

[Caulfield]

Sounds like any other coach or player's reaction to me.

[eric6854]

So do you think they sit together reading Bigsoccer, or do they read seperately and compare notes?

[chad]

They sound just like BigSoccer posters. I don't get the big deal.

[purojogo]

So do you think they sit together reading Bigsoccer, or do they read seperately and compare notes?
Ha, for a second i thought of that, but i truly doubt it (and i hope I am right) .... I have to think it was the articles, which while critical, were not harsh enough to merit the reaction these two guys showed....

Moreover, considering Arena had all but conceded he might have done better with more than one striker, only to later call those who might have actually put those same thoughts in written form (in opinion/analysis pieces) as "idiotic".... That is what bothers me most.... NOt that they don't have a right to complain at all, but the apparent disconnect here..... Maybe i'm seeing too much into this, but i thought it worth discussing.....

[Serie Zed]

I think his main points are the American soccer fans are still fundamentally retarded about how hard it is to win on the road against a team as good as yours, especially when the match is played in a venue that provides (arguably) the biggest home-field advantage in the world, and that many fans (in all sports) are whiners who throw the pacifier out of the crib every time their self-esteem doesn't get a boost from the game of the moment.

T&T 0-0 Costa Rica
Panama 1-1 Mexico
Mexico 54-4-1 at home in WCQ

I can't say for sure that expecting/demanding a result in Azteca is idiocy, but if the pointed hat fits...

[mpruitt]

I'll always be a fan, but some attitudes are just too much to take (IMO) It's not like the scrutiny that this team goes through ever goes (thankfully) near the level of abuse you can see in the treatment of just about 90+% of other NTs out there..... Yet, these two feel as if the wrath of the world had been placed upon them..... That really bothers me a lot..... can't take a bit of criticism..... come on.....
Fantastic post.

Arena can't before the game talk about what an unprecidented swagger his team has and everything like that, how they expect to win then after the game come out and talk about inflated expectations.

[scaryice]

To the thread starter: You're just looking for excuses to complain. Stop it.

[sidefootsitter]

I "liked" the one where LanDo was asked if he was leaving Bayer and he said, "I am not sure how this process works."

After that, he proceeded to score with his nose from 30 yards out.

[Joel Kennedy]

This is great. I don't care what LD or BA are saying...

The fact they are receiving pressure from media and fans...and feel the need to respond is good enough for me.

We can't take it to the next level if everyone is content with playing like that.

And honestly I think the truth lies somewhere in between ... there is a grain of truth to what they say ...

but it is the pressure that I really like to see.

[Shaster]

I think his main points are the American soccer fans are still fundamentally retarded about how hard it is to win on the road against a team as good as yours, especially when the match is played in a venue that provides (arguably) the biggest home-field advantage in the world, and that many fans (in all sports) are whiners who throw the pacifier out of the crib every time their self-esteem doesn't get a boost from the game of the moment.

T&T 0-0 Costa Rica
Panama 1-1 Mexico
Mexico 54-4-1 at home in WCQ

I can't say for sure that expecting/demanding a result in Azteca is idiocy, but if the pointed hat fits...

I have no problem to lose to Mexico or any opponents in a good game. If they are better than us on that day, so be it. But I cannot accept a team behave like bunch of sissy and even fear to attack Mexicans! Go watch how Panama played Mexico? They attack and dominated.

[Nutmeg]

Fantastic post.

Arena can't before the game talk about what an unprecidented swagger his team has and everything like that, how they expect to win then after the game come out and talk about inflated expectations.

That's what I find most amusing about his post-game comments. I've got the Outside the Lines segment on TiVo, and Arena himself was talking like he needs a deep-sea fishing net to hold up his "f'n" balls.

To then turn around and say that fans were idiots because they expected a result, well, apparently this particular shoe fits a lot of people, Arena included.

[mpruitt]

I'm not even sure he's trotted out the, 'People just don't understand WCQ' type line. But he has done plenty fo talk about 'the altitute. the altitude. the altitude.' Well Bruce, 'the atltitude' seems like it was a whole lot more signifigant after the match then it was before in your mind, but somehow I don't think Azteca changed in elevation from Good Friday to Easter Sunday.

[JBigjake]

you do, you flaming poser troll!

Just kidding, but nobody likes to be criticized & we're all a bit too quick to jump on the team & coach after the loss in Mexico.

[mpruitt]

you do, you flaming poser troll!

Just kidding, but nobody likes to be criticized & we're all a bit too quick to jump on the team & coach after the loss in Mexico.
That's doubtfull. Nobody likes to be criticized? They're professionals, criticism will and should come with the job.

I'm getting a little sick and tired of people insinuating that everyone who's been critical of Arena and Donavan over the last week is either a howl at the moon blood thirsty shut-in, or somehow insensative to Donavan's wishes. We all support American soccer that's who were are but that doesn't mean it should be blind support.

This buisness about 'Landon's doing what makes him happy' is bunk too imo. Sure it may make him happy to stay in MLS. I just can't think of any other high profile or championship caliber star athlete that doesn't have the competative desire to succeed at the highest levels of his sport.

[JBigjake]

That's doubtfull. Nobody likes to be criticized? They're professionals, criticism will and should come with the job.
...I'm getting a little sick and tired of people ...
Ooh, sensitive, are we?
Even professionals dislike criticism, whether or not it is valid. You may be delighted when someone slags you in a group setting, but most are not happy with it.

[ne plus ultra]

Maxim's point is really good - that Bruce actually dismissed the importance of altitude in his player selection. He had players that had been training at altitude for 2 weeks, but he didn't use most of them (they were mostly MLS players), instead going with the Euro-trash who hadn't had as much time in Colorado.

There's no particular home-field advantage to altitude, unless you're playing a team of sherpa's whose lungs actually adapted to it. Instead, there's a big preparation advantage. Bruce decided against preparation, and now he wants to whine about how tough it is to be prepared.

[mpruitt]

Maxim's point is really good - that Bruce actually dismissed the importance of altitude in his player selection. He had players that had been training at altitude for 2 weeks, but he didn't use most of them (they were mostly MLS players), instead going with the Euro-trash who hadn't had as much time in Colorado.

There's no particular home-field advantage to altitude, unless you're playing a team of sherpa's whose lungs actually adapted to it. Instead, there's a big preparation advantage. Bruce decided against preparation, and now he wants to whine about how tough it is to be prepared.
Exactly. I think the quote was, 'Well their players aren't aclimated to the altitude really either so I don't think it's going to be a factor.' Why was it exactly then after the game the 'altitude' was such a factor when the Mexicans were streaking up and down the sidelines? I'm not sure why that was exactly other than they were more fit, but when was the last time the US played a team that had a higher level of fitness than them?

To the other poster. Nobody likes to be criticized, but some people can take criticism. Other people, like professionals should expect it and know to respond to it like professionals.

[Sandon Mibut]

I'm a big Arena fan but he's well-known for sometimes bristling at media criticism.

I find this happens in US Soccer a lot. We ask for more media coverage and then we get it and - golly - not all of it is positive. Well, that's how this media business works. They praise you when you do well and come down on you when you fail.

But criticism beats the crap out of being ignored and our soccer community should to grips with that and tighten their skirts when the heat comes.

And, as others have noted, the criticism our notables in the soccer community get here is a laughable shell compared to what it's like in the rest of the world. Maybe that's what Landon couldn't handle about Germany!